Form-fitting sock lining



March 23, 1954 c. v. WATSON 2,672,698

FORM-FITTING socx LINING Filed Nov. 29, 1952 Mm 1 7414. fig;

Patented Mar. 23, 1954 UNI TED S TATES PATENT OFFICE aerasssFoRiinFiTTING so'cK LiNiNG Carlisl e 'vl Watson, Auburn, MaineApplication November 29, 1952, Serial No. 323,134

1 Claim. 1

This invention comprises a. new and improved form-fitting sock liningfor shoes having pronounced transverse curvature at the inside shankportion for supporting the arch of the wearers foot.

The problem of providing a flexible sock lining that will lie fiat inthe bottom of a shoe provided with an upwardly projecting support orcookie for the inner longitudinal arch of the foot was solved to a largedegree by the invention of my prior Patent No. 2,413,534 dated December31, 1946. That patent describes the expedient of providing a sock liningwith a cookie insert piece larger in its area than the projected areawhich it is to cover in the inside shank curve of the sock lining and bysecuring such insert so as to throw a spring into it causing the insertpiece normally to stand up in a convex curve while the body of the socklining lies flat on the flatter surface of the shoe bottom. A socklining so constructed is given the necessary three dimensional contourrequired to fit smoothly upon an underlying insole having an archsupporting formation.

While the sock lining of my said prior patent has been entirelysatisfactory in structure and has remained smooth and free of wrinklesin wear, it necessitates considerable additional shoemaking expense andrequires the services of skilled operators in its production. Thepresent invention is based on my discovery that the desired results maybe secured at considerably less cost by utilizing a sock lining havinga. continuous integral body with an inside shank portion extendingoutwardly in a cookie extension and being set off and defined from thebody of the sock lining by a curved line of pronounced indentations.This line of indentations provides, in effect, a hinge line connectionand a stiffening ridge between the body of the sock lining whichconforms only to the longitudinal curvature of the shoe bottom and thecookie extension which constitutes a prominence sloping upwardly abovethe plane of the body of the sock lining and which must present a smooththree dimensional curvature.

The improved sock lining of my invention accordingly obviates thenecessity of providing separate cookie inserts and eliminates theoperation of attaching the insert in a sprung or distorted condition. Onthe other hand, it achieves all the desired results and provides a,form-fitting sock lining which may be produced from an integral blank bya single stamping, molding or embossing operation.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood andappreciated from the following description of a preferred embodimentthereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in theaccompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the flat blank,

Fig. 2 is a similar view of the finished sock lining, and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2 but on an enlargedscale, showing in addition an underlying pad.

The sock lining may be out from calf upper cookie extension 12 of convexedge contour. The blank is normally fiat and is represented in Fig. 1with its grain or finished surface uppermost as it is eventuallypositioned in the shoe.

The sock lining is completed by placing the blank in the proper locationbetween suitable molding dies which are constructed and arranged to forma curved line I3 of separate, repeated and pronounced indentations. Thisline I3 coincides with the normal inside shank curvature of thecorresponding insole and forms in effect a curved hinge line ofconnection between the flat body of the sock lining and the cookieextension IL. The molding operation which is effected by the moldingdies simultaneously with the formation of the indented line I3 fashionsthe cookie extension l2 into an upwardly convex uniformly curvedcontour, with a downwardly extending stiffening ridge in the line ofindentations. This closely approximates the contour of the archsupporting pad M or other support which is located beneath it in theshoe bottom as indicated in Fig. 3. A shank fitting pad 14 of convexcurvature may be assembled in the shoe bottom by being cemented to theextension l2 of the sock lining, or it may be independently securedbefore the sock lining is placed in position. In other cases the archsupporting section will be molded into the insole itself, but inwhatever manner the transverse supporting curvature is secured in theshoe bottom it will be smoothly fitted by the improved sock lining of myinvention.

The present application is filed as a substi tute for andcontinuation-in-part of my prior application, Ser. No. 186,219 filedSeptember 22, 1950, now abandoned in favor of the present application.

Having thus disclosed my invention and degaging grain surface providinga hinge line conscribed in detail a preferred embodiment therenectionand a downwardly extending stiffening of, I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letridge, the extension being shaped as a convex ters Patent:prominence sloping upwardly above the plane of An improved form-fittingsock lining for shoes 5 the body of the sock lining, and an arch fittinghaving both longitudinal and transverse curvapad of convex upwardcurvature secured to the ture at the inside shank portion for supportingunder a of the a d te o the inner longitudinal arch of the wearers foot,CAR I L V. WA SON- said lining comprising a continuous integral body ofthin flexible sheet leather with a grain sur- 10 References cued in theme of thls patent face and having the contour of the insole with UNITEDSTATES PATENTS its inside shank portion extending outwardly in a cookieextension of convex edge contour, the 32??? gi g et a1 25 said extensionbeing set off and defined from the 2063625 Rigandi 1936 body of the socklining by a curved line of sep- 15 2237892 Squire j 1941 arate andrepeated indentations in its foot en-

